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Generations of conservation leaders

We salute their extraordinary achievements as well as their ongoing commitment to our natural world, and we are grateful to the many alumni and friends who shared their conservation stories, memories and inspiring words. If you’re an SCA alum with a tale to tell, send us an email.

Previously Featured Alumni

Every day for the last 15 weeks, we have featured one of the 75,000 SCA Members who have served the planet.

SCA 1964, Olympic National Park

Ed Bartlett’s history with SCA goes back to 1964, when he served on a crew in Olympic National Park. A private investor who lives full time Chevy Chase, MD, we recently visited Ed and his wife Mary at their summer home in Damariscotta, ME, where he introduced us to another member of the family who, like Ed, is a dedicated steward of our environment.Read more

SCA 1993, Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, AK

No matter how many good days you’ve enjoyed, it’s doubtful you’ve been on top of the world as often as Eric Larsen. The arctic explorer and Minnesota native has trekked numerous times to both the North and South Poles to raise awareness of climate change, and in 2010 Eric reached both poles plus the summit of Mount Everest within a 365 period.Read more

Safiya Sabir, SCA Hudson Valley Corps 2011

My favorite SCA moment was planting Spartina grass in Pelham Bay Park — hands down the best park in New York City! I spent two days working alongside NYC Parks and Recreation scientists planting and taking breaks for bird watching.Read more

SCA Alum 2006, 2007, 2008

Owl Biologist Jennifer Hartman works with Conservation Canines, a nonproﬁt project that trains rescued shelter dogs to track endangered species. With the help of her highly trained four-legged sidekicks, she explores remote wildlife habitats and studies threatened and endangered species right where they live…Read more

SCA 2006, Yellowstone National Park

A good percentage of SCA interns are seeking job experience, but John already had a career’s worth by the time he applied to SCA. He’d just retired as an executive at WGBH-TV, one of the nation’s top public television stations, and was looking for new pursuits when he heard Yellowstone was looking for a “wolf ambassador.” John got the gig and has been a seasonal ranger at Yellowstone ever since.Read more

Foresters, NYC Department of Parks & Recreation

Christina Perdos and Kip Stein served as SCA crew leaders on opposite sides of the country. Now they work across the desk from each other as urban foresters at the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation, helping to support the next generation of SCA members in the Big Apple.Read more

SCA 1971, Olympic National Park

Growing up in Cleveland, Jackie’s early encounters with nature were mostly centered on the Great Lakes. Her SCA crew experience introduced her to the West, showed her how to live in the moment, and taught her “how to persevere while carrying heavy loads and with blisters on my heels.” Read more

SCA 1979, Yosemite National Park

Chip is managing member of Fazenda Investments, LLC, a private equity and real estate investment ﬁrm. In the past, he’s consolidated fragmented industries ranging from outdoor advertising to bowling centers, but lately Chip has shifted his focus to sustainable, organic foods. A member of the SCA board of directors with a keen interest in alumni relations, Chip earned his BA from Middlebury College and his MBA from the Darden School of Business.Read more

SCA 2014 Kenai Fjords National Park

There’s deﬁnitely a sense of “we’re not in Kansas anymore” in Amidia Frederick’s blog from Alaska – even though she’s from Huntingdon, PA. Upon her arrival, she writes, “I could feel that I was a long way from Pennsylvania and that there was a wealth of inspiration and knowledge for me” at Kenai Fjords National Park.Read more

SCA hitches: too many to count

In 1984, Russ – a career teacher – stepped in to run SCA’s Seattle oﬃce on an interim basis, and that started a quarter-century run with SCA. Since then, Russ has led SCA high school crews in Yellowstone and Denali, taught Wilderness Work Skills to hundreds of grateful students, and consulted on SCA’s award-winning Mount Rainier ﬂood recovery program in 2007-2008, among other roles.Read more

SCA 2014, Boston Harbor Islands NRA

Sophia, a U-Mass Boston environmental science major who served last summer at Boston Harbor Islands National Recreation Area, represented SCA’s 75,000 alumni last week when she accepted the Walden Woods Project Environmental Challenge Award. A huge Eagles fan, she was thrilled to meet the Project’s founder, Don Henley, and chat with the night’s major award winner, Robert Redford. We also took a moment to speak with her.Read more

Aurelia Casey, SCA 2012, 2013, 2014

Aurelia Casey started out as a community crew member in New York City, but she didn’t stop there. After Hurricane Sandy, she came back for a second year on the crew to help her Staten Island community recover from the storm, and brought out friends and family to participate in SCA’s ConSERVE NYC events. After meeting the education staff of Hudson River Park during a ConSERVE NYC event, Aurelia landed her ﬁrst SCA internship position this summer, where she was able to share her conservation experience with park visitors and take the ﬁrst steps toward pursuing a career in education.Read more

SCA 2005 Yuha Desert & Olympic National Park

Lillian holds a truly rare perspective of SCA: she’s been both a team member – restoring Southern California landscapes and habitats damaged by unauthorized off-road vehicle use – and a team leader, directing the efforts of an SCA trail crew at Olympic National Park.Read more

SCA 2009 Tonto National Monument

In 2009, while studying Parks, Rec & Tourism at Arizona State University, Joshua Sweet interned at nearby Tonto National Monument, providing interpretive and educational services for visiting youth groups. Just ﬁve years later, he’s already held nearly a dozen seasonal ranger jobs and visited more than 100 national parks. We asked him to summarize his journey to date and he sent back an essay titled “The Scenic Route.” Read more

SCA Alum '11, '12, '13, '14

CJ Goulding has attended SCA’s NPS Academy as both a member and a mentor. He’s interned for SCA in the Grand Tetons and led crews of high school students in city parks for SCA’s Seattle Community ProgramRead more

SCA 2007, 2013

At age 15, Grace moved with her dad from her homeland of Cameroon to Seattle. A few months later, she was on an SCA crew in the North Cascades, and since then has returned for another ﬁeld hitch and an 18-month stint as an oﬃce assistant.Read more

SCA 1958, Grand Teton National Park

After two years in the US Army, John was seeking a seasonal job with the National Park Service when he discovered SCA. It was the summer of 1958, just SCA’s second year, and John’s interpretive internship at Grand Teton National Park launched a 30-year career with NPSRead more

SCA 2012-2013, D.C. to Kenai Fjords

I’m proud of the risks I’ve taken — thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail with my best friend instead of jumping immediately into a policy job, and being willing to be an older intern than most to explore a new direction for my career. Read more

SCA 2011, Cococino National Forest

“When I joined the Veterans Fire Corps,” says Davon, “that structure and camaraderie from living in the same house, pursuing the same mission, gave me the same feeling I had while serving in the Army.”Read more

SCA 2004 Franconia Notch State Park, New Hampshire

These days, Becca Alfafara is a Glacier National Park Ranger with one of the world’s most enviable Instagram feeds. Back in 2004, she applied to SCA and soon found herself on an AmeriCorps crew at Franconia Notch State Park in New Hampshire. Without that experience, she believes she probably wouldn’t be a Park Ranger.Read more

Mike Adamovic, AmeriCorps 2012, 2013, 2014

During my outings in the ﬁeld I always brought my camera with me. Some of my best images were taken when I stumbled across something unexpected, be it a rattlesnake, an endangered orchid, or a remarkably scenic vista.Read more

SCA 2010-13

Jane was an interpreter at her most recent SCA hitch in Shirley, NY, and says “I loved seeing campers come to the realization that they could one day get a job and work with nature, wildlife, or the environment. It’s possible for them!” That, by the way, is Jane’s career goal, too. Last year, at NationalParksTraveler.com, she wrote about the need for space, concluding that “solitude can happen even when you’re among others.” Read more

SCA 2013, Grand Teton National Park, Department of the Interior

If you want to ﬁnd Cristina, just look outside. The University of Michigan biology major could be off collecting soil samples, strolling through Nichols Arboretum, or playing ﬁeld hockey. Cristina felt at home in nature at a very early age, and recently wrote about her evolution from bug rustler to outdoor advocate in NationalParksTraveler.com.Read more

SCA Crew Leader, New Jersey Programs 2014

Emily’s a member of the ﬁeld crew working to prepare Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge for a celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act on September 3, 2014. She’s reﬂecting on the experience of working in the wilderness on SCA’s Follow Me Field Blog.Read more

SCA 1980, Zion National Park; 1983, Appalachian Trail

Steve is a partner with Boies, Schiller & Flexner, a law practice involved “in every major legal battle of the era,” according to The American Lawyer magazine. Steve has represented a variety of clients in antitrust, intellectual property and other complex cases including Microsoft, Oracle and Napster. He also represented the plaintiffs in Perry v. Schwarzenegger, the constitutional challenge to California’s Proposition 8 banning gay marriage. Among his other aﬃliations, Steve is a member of the SCA board of directors.Read more

SCA Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps 1989

When he wasn’t swinging his pulaski or hiking to the tops of various mountains, he was playing his guitar around the campﬁre, experimenting with the blues stylings that would later form the backbone of G. Love and Special Sauce’s sound.Read more

Liz Putnam could have pulled any number of strings to join SCA’s Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps – after all, she founded SCA! But, in 1989, she ﬁlled out an application just like everyone else.Read more

SCA Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps, 1990

I had spent my entire life living in Oklahoma City and Houston and never experiencing the mountains, wilderness, and solitude of the natural world. But after that summer in Yellowstone I never wanted to go back.Read more

SCA Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps, 1991

We came up with a work chant and a march as we were moving those heavy stones, and I just felt so much pride in the physical work we were doing, and in the camaraderie we had developed as a group.Read more

SCA Greater Yellowstone Recovery Corps, 1989

CEO, Humane Society of the U.S., SCA Alum

It was during that summer at Isle Royale that I committed to devote my adult life to the goal of protecting animals and nature. I told myself I would be a bystander no longer. I’ve been doing that work ever since.Read more

NPS Academy '13, Grand Teton '13

Around these densely forested parts of Wyoming, the bear is king. When a shutterbug or intrepid hiker asks about the whereabouts of a certain large mammal, it is the bear they seek. And when a family of four asks much the same question with palpable trepidation, it is the bear they seek to avoid. Grizzly or black, the bear commands our attention, if not our utmost adoration.Read more

SCA 1983, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

“We were a very diverse group of high school students – kids from the inner city, rural communities, and suburban areas, some of whom had never spent time in the outdoors or traveled outside their state, and we bonded with each other over the course of the program.”Read more

SCA 1992 & 1993, Shenandoah National Park

Ian has been on the run since high school, competing in track and cross-country “but I loved covering my miles on the trails.” That led to ultrarunning – technically, tearing through any distance greater than a marathon’s 26.2 miles, and often up to 100 miles. His two SCA summers led to something else: a ten-year career as a national park ranger. We asked him about both ﬁelds, once he slowed down…Read more

SCA 2010, Umbagog National Wildlife Refuge

Last month, after three years of working for the National Park Service, I earned my career tenure with the federal government. This accomplishment would not have been possible without my SCA service, which gave me the “golden ticket” of non-competitive hiring status.Read more

SCA 1993-1997

I grew up in the graﬃti-ﬁlled streets of South Central, where even nice guys had to front a cut-throat persona to get through the day without being beaten. You either rose to the ﬁghting or you died. I had my own run-ins with the authorities.Read more

SCA '13, Sitka Ranger District, '14 Denali National Park

SCA 1978 Yosemite National Park

In 1978, I was going to a boarding school, The George School in Pennsylvania. There were assemblies every week, and one was about the Student Conservation Association, where students who had internships would talk about their experience. It sounded perfect for me. I applied but was wait-listed. A week before the summer session started, I got a call. Someone had dropped out so a space opened for me. I happily packed my bags.Read more

SCA 1978-Present

Scott has been directly responsible for creating service opportunities for tens of thousands of students – including all three of his children, who are among SCA’s 75,000 alumni. For over three decades, Scott has worked tirelessly for SCA while architecting the Public Lands Corps Act and lending his leadership to the Public Lands Service Coalition. Prior to SCA, he was as a national park ranger and earlier this year accepted The Corps Network’s Legacy Achievement Award. Read more

SCA 1978 Yosemite National Park

Thirty-six years after her initial SCA experience, Dolly remains a familiar face at SCA. During spring training sessions, she helps SCA crew leaders sharpen their crosscut skills as well as their saws, sharing her craft and her passion. Initially, however, she was rebuffed in her bid to rejoin SCA – a lesson that has guided much of her life since.Read more

SCA 1978 Yosemite National Park

An associate professor of communications at Springﬁeld College, Marty Dobrow is the award-winning author of Knocking on Heaven’s Door: Six Minor Leaguers in Search of the Baseball Dream and Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball, as well as numerous stories for The Boston Globe, Sports Illustrated, espn.com, and many others. Read more

SCA 1976: Yosemite

In 1976, as a high school junior, Ellen Tohn ﬂew from New York to California to join an SCA trail crew in Yosemite National Park. The airline lost her luggage – but Ellen found her calling.
Following another hitch with SCA, degrees at Cornell and MIT, and years of work in environmental policy, today Ellen is a nationally recognized expert in housing-based environmental health threats, indoor air quality and lead poisoning prevention.Read more

SCA 1980, Padre Island National Seashore

“It was the ﬁrst time I saw the ocean or a sea turtle,” says Donna Shaver, recalling her SCA internship at Padre Island National Seashore nearly 35 years ago. “It changed my career and my life.”
Indeed, she’s been at Padre Island ever since. Dr. Shaver’s internship convinced her “to dedicate my career to helping recover dwindling sea turtle populations and study these animals. I have spent my working career doing so.”Read more

SCA 1974 North Cascades National Park

“I applied to SCA as an option to jail or death.” Whether he was looking for trouble or it was seeking him, Ernie Wong encountered more than his share growing up in Chicago in the late 1960s and early ‘70s. At age 15, his environmental teacher confronted him. “He recommended I apply to SCA as an option to jail or death,” Ernie recalls.Read more

SCA 2007, 2008, 2009

Sarah’s been here before. Seven years ago, she was SCA’s 50,000th member, attended EarthVision – SCA’s 50th anniversary national youth summit – and was featured on the NBC Nightly News. Today, she’s pursuing her J.D. and hopes to practice environmental law. “I’m interested in defending the environment and people who need a healthy environment to make a living,” she says. We asked Sarah about her SCA experiences.Read more

SCA 2011-Present

Serah is studying international business and Spanish, and one day hopes to become ambassador to a Spanish-speaking nation. But this summer the 19-year old is working as an SCA apprentice crew leader in her hometown of Milwaukee. Having previously served on three SCA crews, and with three brothers who also have SCA experience, Serah is well acquainted with the drill and is introducing other local teens to the great outdoors and community service.Read more

SCA 2012-2014, Veterans Fire Corps

After three months as a member of SCA’s Veterans Fire Corps, Mike declared “this program should be waiting for every vet when they get home” and re-upped for two more hitches as a corps leader before leaving SCA earlier this year to start his own wildland ﬁre mitigation company.Read more

SCA 2014 - Pittsburgh

I believe that climate change is the greatest moral issue of our time and I want to do my part to make the world a better place. Naturally, being a conservationist is a ﬁtting solution and directly in line with my values.Read more

SCA 2014, Pittsburgh Community Programs, NPS Academy

SCA 2014 - East Bay Regional Parks, Oakland, CA

From a young age, I had spent all of my free time outdoors, participating in outdoor sports, biking and hiking, farming and gardening, and just enjoying the beauty of nature. It ﬁnally dawned on me that I wanted to be part of the movement that took care of natural areas so others could also enjoy its beauty and resources as I had.Read more

SCA 2014 - NYC

The joy I experience when I realize what I’m doing isn’t for me, but is for every single living and non-living object of this planet. Conservation is giving ode to previous generations for helping mother Earth live and at the same time safeguarding the Earth for future generations.Read more

SCA 2006 Yosemite National Park

The best ideas are often inspired by nature. Mine came to me while I served as an SCA intern at Yosemite. SCA enabled me to understand the connection between myself and my impact on the land. And I gained the skills and conﬁdence I needed to not only change my behaviors but help others change theirs.Read more

SCA 1994, Glacier National Park

In 1994, at 17, Jessica Martineau joined an SCA trail crew at Glacier National Park. Since then, she’s earned degrees in dance and anthropology from the University of Michigan, performed on stages from New York to Vegas, and faced down a life-threatening illness. Jessica now helps others cope with their own genetic disorders.Read more

SCA 1957 – Olympic National Park

Yellowstone National Park contains more than 1,100 miles of trail and among the most impressive is the one blazed by Dr. Mary Meagher. A ﬁrst-year SCA alumna (Olympic NP, ‘57), Mary is widely credited with paving the way for women scientists in the park service. “Agencies did not hire women at that time, at least with my training and interests,” she says. “That’s just how things were.”Read more

SCA 1993-1996, 2004-2005

“Once I got skis on my feet, I knew this was it! SCA has taught me the importance of sustainability and the ethical responsibility to be part of the solution and not the problem. My relationships from SCA are still with me today and have opened doors I never thought possible.”Read more

SCA Alum '99-'03, '08, '09

Monique began her career with SCA in high school as a DC Community Programs member, going on to the Junior Ranger program in Rock Creek Park and eventually participating in a National Crew at Salmon Challis National Forest in Idaho. After college and a few years of globe-trotting (just Peace Corps in the Philippines, nbd) she returned to DC to run the very SCA program she’d started in. Get the whole amazing story below in an essay she wrote for the Huﬃngton Post in September of last year.Read more

SCA 2010, 2011, 2012 & 2014

Russ Aguilar likes to tell stories. This summer, Russ is in his fourth interpretive position with SCA, this time at Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Alaska. “I want to become an educator or an interpreter for a conservation agency,” he says. “SCA not only opened my eyes to the world of conservation but convinced me that I would like to do it for the rest of my life.”Read more

SCA 1978 Chaco Canyon

“I’d had a lot of outdoor experience before SCA,” he notes, “but what I didn’t have was focus, discipline. I didn’t have the sense that there were careers in nature that I could make a living.”Read more

SCA member Devdharm Khalsa celebrates nature with his formidable photography skills. “Great photo stories become symbols of landscapes & species worth protecting, show the important work scientists & researchers are doing to make this happen, & encourage the public to care about the environment…”Read more

SCA 1998, 2003, 2004

Sara was just 15 when she ﬁrst joined SCA as a trail volunteer in New Mexico. “I was in a wonderful environment with wonderful people,” Sara recalls. “It was the most inﬂuential summer of my life.” Much of what she learned that year and through two subsequent SCA internships is evident in her writing as well as her ongoing conservation efforts. “SCA enabled me to develop a great appreciation and respect for Mother Nature,” says Sara, now 31. “I credit with shaping who I am today.”Read more

SCA 2012 Allaire State Park & SCA 2013 Clearwater National Forest

For 17-year-old SCA alum Jordan Chow, serving a three-week stint with SCA was just the beginning. After his 2012 summer crew position at Allaire State Park in New Jersey, Jordan came home and took a closer look at conservation volunteer opportunities in his own community in Chappaqua, New York.Read more

SCA 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012

Jay Carter started with SCA in September of 2005 when he was a freshman at City Charter High School, and has remained very active with SCA ever since. He began volunteering as a member of the TRRO Conservation Leadership Corps (CLC) joining the alumni of that program known as “Trailblazers”. He went on to attend summer national crews on the Appalachian Trail in Maine (2007), Allegheny National Forest in Pennsylvania (2008), Haleakala National Park in Hawaii (2009) and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee (2012). He also attended SCA’s EarthVision event in Washington, D.C. (2008), Power-Shift Conference in Washington, D.C. (2009), and completed an SCA Conservation Internship with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at Rice Lake Refuge in Minnesota (2011).Read more

SCA 2009 Shenandoah National Park

Since a 2009 SCA internship at Shenandoah National Park, Don Macänlalay has gone on to do social media for The Nature Conservancy, the largest environmental nonproﬁt in America, and one of the most trusted. He began at their national headquarters in Arlington, VA , focused on Tumblr and Instagram, but soon moved on to managing all social media for their Washington state oﬃce in Seattle.Read more

SCA 1974, 1975, 1980

Exactly 25 years ago, accompanied only by his wolf dog Smoke, Keith Nyitray recalibrated our understanding of adventure and his own understanding of life by trekking 1,500 miles across the Arctic Brooks Range, from the Yukon Territories to the Northwest coast of Alaska. Along the way, he encountered ﬁerce blizzards, menacing grizzlies, and temperatures of 60 degrees below zero.Read more

SCA 1957 – Olympic National Park

The diary of the ﬁrst-ever SCA crew tells of “15 young woodsmen” who built a new trail along the Elwha River in Olympic National Park, “swapped yarns” and vied in “glissading marathons” in their off-time. Then 16-year old Eliot Putnam started his journal exactly 57 years ago today. Eliot would go on to travel the world with the Peace Corps, CARE, Pathﬁnder International and the National Council for International Health (where he served as president) promoting family and reproductive health programs in developing countries.Read more

SCA 1993 Seattle Community Program

This year the Northwest Community program is celebrating 30 years of community programming and conservation service to the Puget Sound area. We’re reaching out to our SCA members throughout...Read more

Heading up to Backbone State Park in Iowa after work tonight! I know it isn't a national park, but you said any
-Rebekah Isack

Rim to rim - Grand Canyon National Park. -Kim Tapio-Nuzzo

Paiute pass from Huntington Lake to South Lake in the John Muir Wilderness
-Nelson Mills

Maybe a section of the AT in Shenandoah National Park.
-Scott Felgar

So Kelly Cox I just did the Zion Narrows and it is awesome. So much fun! For me, West Rim Trail to Angels Landing. I was right there when the monsoon hit! -Edward J.

High Dune in Great Sand Dunes National Park.
-Theo Merrill

The Alice loop trail in the sawtooths
-Susan McVey

A random trail that i just had a map for, not much foreknowledge, so i could have plenty of surprises and fun
-Kris Miljan

High line at Glacier NP -Karissa DeCarlo

Through hike the at, then the pct
-Ben Henry

John Muir Trail. All of it. because Mountains. And lakes. And bears.
-Chris Oswalt

The AT, becuase it's the best single trail in the nation!
-Jeffrey Sommer

The Wonderland trail in Mt. Rainier National Park!
-Russ Aguilar

Tennessee Trail in Marin County, because I would be in Marin County. And fishing at the Fort Baker pier as well.
-Wayne Heinze

Cascade Canyon GTNP
-Larry Sportsman

A trail at Yellowstone. I've ALWAYS wanted to go there
-Deidra Ritchhart

The Buckhorn Trail to Prairie Dog Town at Theodore Roosevelt National Park because prairie dogs.
-Joe Thurston

Brokeoff in Lassen!
-Ray Urner

Half Dome. I've been dreaming of hiking it for the last five years. -Stephanie Hummel

QUESTION: If you could combine two animals into one super animal, which would they be and why?
Example: Bear & armadillo into Bearadillo, because a ferocious bear with a weird leathery shell would be unstoppable...

A cougar and hawk mix, cause what would be worse than seeing giant claws coming for you out of the sky? Imagine the cry of that animal!
-Sarah Valentine

Llamacorn (llama + unicorn): what more could one want than a fluffy, adorable, life-saving comrade that spits at people it doesn't like? And it will carry your pack!
-Kristine Brunsman

Silverback Moosilla (gorilla + moose): anyone whose spent time in moose country knows to never piss off the giant ungulate, so imagine a true king of the jungle with the bipolar disorder of a moose and massive antlers . . .
-Jeremy Krones

Bear and Deer... whats' better than Beer?
-Bobby TAylor

Bear and Wolf "Bolf"- because if bears could learn to work in a group and run huge distances like wolves .. With their strength and foraging ability ... They would be indomitable.
-Karen Joe Tarmichael Dollinger

Horseshoe crab and bear. Un-freaking-stoppable
-Sam Willner

Chicken with a centipede. Drumsticks for everyone!
(Of course you'll have trouble getting it out from under the sink.)
-Bill O'Donnell

I would create some sort of Man-Bear-Pig
-Weston James Phillips

Today's Question: “If nature were a product, what would its slogan be?”

"Not for sale." --Akiva Lichtenberg

Don't break it, don't buy it! --Sara Al-Azem

"Keep her alive, she will provide." --Jerick Alegarbes

The Universe's Best Place to Live --Seven Generations Ahead

100% Natural. always was always will be.--Jeff Paulin

Reciprocity not Tyranny --Sharleen Spahiu

I dislike this idea of mashing consumerism with nature...--Heather Laine Kranz

We must believe in order to see the possibilities. Protecting our environment through hands on and grassroots movement has helped me to open my heart to the world in saving it. Thanks to the fabulous and awesome SCA experiences it has given me the secret ingredient, called love. Give back and you'll not regret it. ~ Jay Carter

I did three different summers! Never give up - Chelsea Montgomery Gonzalez

I loved SCA. Brings back great memories. Learned a lot about the biology, geology and people of the area. Learned a lot about myself too. Once in a lifetime experience that I would highly recommend! - Julie Walker

I spent the summer of 2000 at Bodie SHP.... It was 2,500 miles from home, I was 19.... It was the most memorable summer of my life! I can not wait to bring my kids back to the area and relive it with them... --Allison Schmidt Schwaegel

Everything.Tatum - Clinton-Selin

Never turn down an opportunity because your scared. My first SCA was 3000 miles away from home and it turned into the most incredible summer I've ever had. - Alisabeth Merlo

That life can be simple and rewarding without all of the chaos we think we need to survive - Tracey Holt

Take the long way home, and soak up the experience.- Benjamin Lamb

It always helps me clear my mind and brings me peace.- Shirley Kinney

Last Week's Question: What is the most amazing thing you've seen in the great outdoors?

A herd of ostriches running in the Sahara Desert while I was on a camel trek as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Niger, West Africa. The males had bright red necks. -- Cece Reoux

I saw a black bear running down a fire road through the Great Dismal Swamp NWR where the Lateral One wildfire burned 5 feet of peat lowering the water table and turning a forest into a lake. Surrounded by blackened trees with exposed roots where the ground disappeared from below, the bear was frantically trying to find a place to escape back into the woods but had water on both sides. This happened yesterday. - Erik Wright

A meteorite enter the atmosphere hit the Puget sound on a crystal clear night while I was building a snowcave on Mt.Baker.-Kevin Devine

a porcupine running at full speed!! - Kelly Cox

saw a baby Bald Eagle crash land when we were building trails in Maine. The bird was just learning how to fly and didnt know how to land. It got up and flew down the trail after that. I was on an island in the atlantic that day and missed it...but I saw a sweet sunset. - Chris Oswalt

Remains of pottery, food, and clothing in several hundred year old, abandoned Ute ruins in a secluded canyon on Cedar Mesa, UT. - Stephanie London

SCA students moving giant rocks. - Andrew Warner

A bald eagle grappling with a goose, midair, at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge. There was lots of spiraling about. Didn't end well for the goose. - Joe Thurston

Mountain Lion at the Chiricahua National Monument, July 2006. So awesome. - Josh Nard

A decent looking privy.... - Hailee Malins

Shouldn't that be the rarest thing? - Timothy Dillon

I have witnessed so many amazing things. Each time I think of one, another comes to mind. (a curse of aging, or a blessing??) I visited Grand Teton and Yellowtone in 2010. The herd of bison were amazing. I watched a large male lower his massive body to the ground and proceed to roll like a horse in a dirt bath. That was very amazing. I also came face to face (literally) with another bison as I exited a latrine in Yellowstone. That was amazing in an entirely different way. - Nancy Hemmer Bishop

Working as a fire effects monitor and canoeing to work everyday across lake chelan stehekin!!! - Justin Duncan

An osprey, after Jessica Thompson and I had freed it from a traumatic-looking treetop tangle of fishing line, came back and perched within about ten feet of us as if to say "thanks," then flew off across the reservoir towards the rising sun. - Dan Kahn

Full moon rising over Bryce Canyon just after sunset with a Native American flute playing in the background. -Michelle Malloy NEUDECK